Discovering the Cosmos with Small Spacecraft

Brian Harvey is a writer and broadcaster on spaceflight, with his first articles dating back to the early 1970s. He has written for Spaceflight, Orbit, Astronomy & Space, Hibernia, Quest, Astronomy Now and the Irish Independent. He has broadcast on the BBC World Service and contributed to television programs in Denmark (closed life support systems) and Australia (Japanese space program). His first book was Race into Space (Ellis Horwood,1988), a history of the Soviet space program. This was followed by other books for Praxis on the Russian space program, including the most recent Russian Space Probes, coauthored by Olga Zakutnyaya. Harvey has written three histories of the Chinese space program, with one currently awaiting publication, and has also written histories of the European, Japanese and Indian space programs. He contributed a chapter to Dominic Phelan's Space Sleuths book, and most recently, a chapter on the Cosmos 5 mission was published in the Yuri Galperin 80 years memorial volume by the Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

• Acknowledgements.- Dedication.- About the Author.- List of Tables.- Author's Introduction.- Chapter 1: Foundations.- Chapter 2: Early Explorers.- Chapter 3: Explorer and the crisis in space science.- Chapter 4: Faster, better, cheaper?.- Chapter 5: Future missions and conclusions.- Bibliographical note.- Appendix 1: List of Explorer missions.- Index.

“Harvey’s book is the story of small spacecraft exploring the edges of near-Earth space; of the space between Earth and Moon. It is a comprehensive history and encyclopedic collection of facts and anecdotes … . What is surprising though, is that by both organic content, as well as excellent writing, the arc of Explorer stories is breathtaking.” (Jon C. Cawley, Quest, Vol. 26 (3), 2019)“This is a most fascinating book, rich at two levels. It gives a complete rundown of the series of nearly 100 small-sized space missions that constituted — and continue to constitute … . this is a history thatneeded to be told. Harvey does so in a very readable manner, and his book deserves wide popularity with professionals, students, and lay citizens alike.” (Elizabeth Griffin, The Observatory, Vol. 138 (1267), December, 2018)